Innovation That Matters

Top 10 Education Startups This Year

Features

From at-home genetic engineering to crowdsourcing child scientists, we present this year's best innovative business ideas that encourage users to look up and learn.

10 Nameless paint set teaches users about color theory

It wouldn’t be an education round-up without an idea from the art world. The Japan-based Nameless Paint Set brings an ingenious new design to the traditional paint tube — instead of being represented by their actual color, the paints are identified by its pigment parts so that users can learn about color theory while choosing which shades to use in their latest masterpiece.

Read more about Nameless Paint Set »

9 Home cell growing kit lets everyone try biotech

Catering to the citizen scientist market, Amino Labs presents an at-home bioengineering kit. The package includes equipment for growing and feeding cells, as well as tools to implant DNA into them. The startup hopes to make biotechnology accessible with their easy-to-use format.

Read more about Amino Labs »

10 Nameless paint set teaches users about color theory

It wouldn’t be an education round-up without an idea from the art world. The Japan-based Nameless Paint Set brings an ingenious new design to the traditional paint tube — instead of being represented by their actual color, the paints are identified by its pigment parts so that users can learn about color theory while choosing which shades to use in their latest masterpiece.

Read more about Nameless Paint Set »

8 Searchable college database only lists affordable, high-quality institutions

Though the option of college is increasingly being replaced with tech schools and online courses, many still prefer the traditional infrastructure. But for low-income students, being accepted into a good college is only half the battle — the UK recently topped OECD’s survey as having the highest university tuition fees, averaging at around USD 9000 annually per student, with the US following at USD 8000. ScholarMatch is a nonprofit which enables donors to support struggling students financially, and their new tool ScholarMatcher lets prospective students search only for affordable, high-quality institutions. We also saw AdmitSee, a peer-to-peer service that offers college applicants an alternative to expensive admission consultants — potential students can link up with accepted students from colleges on their priority lists.

Read more about ScholarMatcher »

9 Home cell growing kit lets everyone try biotech

Catering to the citizen scientist market, Amino Labs presents an at-home bioengineering kit. The package includes equipment for growing and feeding cells, as well as tools to implant DNA into them. The startup hopes to make biotechnology accessible with their easy-to-use format.

Read more about Amino Labs »

10 Nameless paint set teaches users about color theory

It wouldn’t be an education round-up without an idea from the art world. The Japan-based Nameless Paint Set brings an ingenious new design to the traditional paint tube — instead of being represented by their actual color, the paints are identified by its pigment parts so that users can learn about color theory while choosing which shades to use in their latest masterpiece.

Read more about Nameless Paint Set »

7 Teaching this robot will help children to improve their handwriting

When children teach their peers, they gain self esteem and improve their own skills, and that’s exactly what Swiss company CoWriter Project’s robot plans to facilitate. The classroom assistant bot NAO, who is less advanced at handwriting than the most students, gives those struggling someone to teach. It can be programmed to reproduce common handwriting errors, which it learns from a database of children’s writing samples.

Read more about CoWriter Project »

8 Searchable college database only lists affordable, high-quality institutions

Though the option of college is increasingly being replaced with tech schools and online courses, many still prefer the traditional infrastructure. But for low-income students, being accepted into a good college is only half the battle — the UK recently topped OECD’s survey as having the highest university tuition fees, averaging at around USD 9000 annually per student, with the US following at USD 8000. ScholarMatch is a nonprofit which enables donors to support struggling students financially, and their new tool ScholarMatcher lets prospective students search only for affordable, high-quality institutions. We also saw AdmitSee, a peer-to-peer service that offers college applicants an alternative to expensive admission consultants — potential students can link up with accepted students from colleges on their priority lists.

Read more about ScholarMatcher »

9 Home cell growing kit lets everyone try biotech

Catering to the citizen scientist market, Amino Labs presents an at-home bioengineering kit. The package includes equipment for growing and feeding cells, as well as tools to implant DNA into them. The startup hopes to make biotechnology accessible with their easy-to-use format.

Read more about Amino Labs »

10 Nameless paint set teaches users about color theory

It wouldn’t be an education round-up without an idea from the art world. The Japan-based Nameless Paint Set brings an ingenious new design to the traditional paint tube — instead of being represented by their actual color, the paints are identified by its pigment parts so that users can learn about color theory while choosing which shades to use in their latest masterpiece.

Read more about Nameless Paint Set »

6 Doctors will soon be able to study 3D-rendered organs in VR before operations

As virtual reality makes it way into a multitude of disciplines, its versatile potential is increasingly exemplified. Now, doctors can explore and inspect 3D VR organs before beginning surgery. EchoPixel is a startup that plans to use information garnered from medical imaging technology to provide this function, and offer a more comprehensive option to current flat images from scans doctors rely on.

Read more about EchoPixel »

7 Teaching this robot will help children to improve their handwriting

When children teach their peers, they gain self esteem and improve their own skills, and that’s exactly what Swiss company CoWriter Project’s robot plans to facilitate. The classroom assistant bot NAO, who is less advanced at handwriting than the most students, gives those struggling someone to teach. It can be programmed to reproduce common handwriting errors, which it learns from a database of children’s writing samples.

Read more about CoWriter Project »

8 Searchable college database only lists affordable, high-quality institutions

Though the option of college is increasingly being replaced with tech schools and online courses, many still prefer the traditional infrastructure. But for low-income students, being accepted into a good college is only half the battle — the UK recently topped OECD’s survey as having the highest university tuition fees, averaging at around USD 9000 annually per student, with the US following at USD 8000. ScholarMatch is a nonprofit which enables donors to support struggling students financially, and their new tool ScholarMatcher lets prospective students search only for affordable, high-quality institutions. We also saw AdmitSee, a peer-to-peer service that offers college applicants an alternative to expensive admission consultants — potential students can link up with accepted students from colleges on their priority lists.

Read more about ScholarMatcher »

9 Home cell growing kit lets everyone try biotech

Catering to the citizen scientist market, Amino Labs presents an at-home bioengineering kit. The package includes equipment for growing and feeding cells, as well as tools to implant DNA into them. The startup hopes to make biotechnology accessible with their easy-to-use format.

Read more about Amino Labs »

10 Nameless paint set teaches users about color theory

It wouldn’t be an education round-up without an idea from the art world. The Japan-based Nameless Paint Set brings an ingenious new design to the traditional paint tube — instead of being represented by their actual color, the paints are identified by its pigment parts so that users can learn about color theory while choosing which shades to use in their latest masterpiece.

Read more about Nameless Paint Set »

5 Camera kit teaches kids about tech in nature

The Wildlife Cam Kit sees another great way of getting kids outdoors while developing skills in science and computing — their Raspberry Pi-powered camera is user-constructed, and takes stealth pictures of garden wildlife. Users build their own cameras, learning skills in coding and 3D design, before placing it in the garden, where the camera will capture close up images of the birds and the bees.

Read more about Wildlife Cam Kit »

6 Doctors will soon be able to study 3D-rendered organs in VR before operations

As virtual reality makes it way into a multitude of disciplines, its versatile potential is increasingly exemplified. Now, doctors can explore and inspect 3D VR organs before beginning surgery. EchoPixel is a startup that plans to use information garnered from medical imaging technology to provide this function, and offer a more comprehensive option to current flat images from scans doctors rely on.

Read more about EchoPixel »

7 Teaching this robot will help children to improve their handwriting

When children teach their peers, they gain self esteem and improve their own skills, and that’s exactly what Swiss company CoWriter Project’s robot plans to facilitate. The classroom assistant bot NAO, who is less advanced at handwriting than the most students, gives those struggling someone to teach. It can be programmed to reproduce common handwriting errors, which it learns from a database of children’s writing samples.

Read more about CoWriter Project »

8 Searchable college database only lists affordable, high-quality institutions

Though the option of college is increasingly being replaced with tech schools and online courses, many still prefer the traditional infrastructure. But for low-income students, being accepted into a good college is only half the battle — the UK recently topped OECD’s survey as having the highest university tuition fees, averaging at around USD 9000 annually per student, with the US following at USD 8000. ScholarMatch is a nonprofit which enables donors to support struggling students financially, and their new tool ScholarMatcher lets prospective students search only for affordable, high-quality institutions. We also saw AdmitSee, a peer-to-peer service that offers college applicants an alternative to expensive admission consultants — potential students can link up with accepted students from colleges on their priority lists.

Read more about ScholarMatcher »

9 Home cell growing kit lets everyone try biotech

Catering to the citizen scientist market, Amino Labs presents an at-home bioengineering kit. The package includes equipment for growing and feeding cells, as well as tools to implant DNA into them. The startup hopes to make biotechnology accessible with their easy-to-use format.

Read more about Amino Labs »

10 Nameless paint set teaches users about color theory

It wouldn’t be an education round-up without an idea from the art world. The Japan-based Nameless Paint Set brings an ingenious new design to the traditional paint tube — instead of being represented by their actual color, the paints are identified by its pigment parts so that users can learn about color theory while choosing which shades to use in their latest masterpiece.

Read more about Nameless Paint Set »

4 Anyone can help with crowdsourcing future antibiotics

The #CitizenScience movement gains momentum by the year, with crowdsourced data becoming a standard for research-led organizations. Post/Biotics enables anyone, including children, to join the search for antibiotics. Participants can sample anything in natural areas, from the soil in their backyard to mushrooms in their local park — if their sample has antibacterial properties, the toolkit will change color. Similarly harnessing the power of citizen scientists, iSPEX-EU saw thousands of air pollution measurements taken by users’ smartphones in a six week research period.

Read more about Post/Biotics »

5 Camera kit teaches kids about tech in nature

The Wildlife Cam Kit sees another great way of getting kids outdoors while developing skills in science and computing — their Raspberry Pi-powered camera is user-constructed, and takes stealth pictures of garden wildlife. Users build their own cameras, learning skills in coding and 3D design, before placing it in the garden, where the camera will capture close up images of the birds and the bees.

Read more about Wildlife Cam Kit »

6 Doctors will soon be able to study 3D-rendered organs in VR before operations

As virtual reality makes it way into a multitude of disciplines, its versatile potential is increasingly exemplified. Now, doctors can explore and inspect 3D VR organs before beginning surgery. EchoPixel is a startup that plans to use information garnered from medical imaging technology to provide this function, and offer a more comprehensive option to current flat images from scans doctors rely on.

Read more about EchoPixel »

7 Teaching this robot will help children to improve their handwriting

When children teach their peers, they gain self esteem and improve their own skills, and that’s exactly what Swiss company CoWriter Project’s robot plans to facilitate. The classroom assistant bot NAO, who is less advanced at handwriting than the most students, gives those struggling someone to teach. It can be programmed to reproduce common handwriting errors, which it learns from a database of children’s writing samples.

Read more about CoWriter Project »

8 Searchable college database only lists affordable, high-quality institutions

Though the option of college is increasingly being replaced with tech schools and online courses, many still prefer the traditional infrastructure. But for low-income students, being accepted into a good college is only half the battle — the UK recently topped OECD’s survey as having the highest university tuition fees, averaging at around USD 9000 annually per student, with the US following at USD 8000. ScholarMatch is a nonprofit which enables donors to support struggling students financially, and their new tool ScholarMatcher lets prospective students search only for affordable, high-quality institutions. We also saw AdmitSee, a peer-to-peer service that offers college applicants an alternative to expensive admission consultants — potential students can link up with accepted students from colleges on their priority lists.

Read more about ScholarMatcher »

9 Home cell growing kit lets everyone try biotech

Catering to the citizen scientist market, Amino Labs presents an at-home bioengineering kit. The package includes equipment for growing and feeding cells, as well as tools to implant DNA into them. The startup hopes to make biotechnology accessible with their easy-to-use format.

Read more about Amino Labs »

10 Nameless paint set teaches users about color theory

It wouldn’t be an education round-up without an idea from the art world. The Japan-based Nameless Paint Set brings an ingenious new design to the traditional paint tube — instead of being represented by their actual color, the paints are identified by its pigment parts so that users can learn about color theory while choosing which shades to use in their latest masterpiece.

Read more about Nameless Paint Set »

3 Schoolkids have a new science classroom — in space

Perhaps one of the most innovative (and spectacular) industries is space exploration, and now schoolkids can can conduct actual space experiments with the help of startup Ardusat. Partnering with satellite company Spire, they provide a variety of toolkits, which classrooms can use to conduct experiments around data collection — each Space Kit contains various sensors found on real satellites.

Read more about Ardusat »

4 Anyone can help with crowdsourcing future antibiotics

The #CitizenScience movement gains momentum by the year, with crowdsourced data becoming a standard for research-led organizations. Post/Biotics enables anyone, including children, to join the search for antibiotics. Participants can sample anything in natural areas, from the soil in their backyard to mushrooms in their local park — if their sample has antibacterial properties, the toolkit will change color. Similarly harnessing the power of citizen scientists, iSPEX-EU saw thousands of air pollution measurements taken by users’ smartphones in a six week research period.

Read more about Post/Biotics »

5 Camera kit teaches kids about tech in nature

The Wildlife Cam Kit sees another great way of getting kids outdoors while developing skills in science and computing — their Raspberry Pi-powered camera is user-constructed, and takes stealth pictures of garden wildlife. Users build their own cameras, learning skills in coding and 3D design, before placing it in the garden, where the camera will capture close up images of the birds and the bees.

Read more about Wildlife Cam Kit »

6 Doctors will soon be able to study 3D-rendered organs in VR before operations

As virtual reality makes it way into a multitude of disciplines, its versatile potential is increasingly exemplified. Now, doctors can explore and inspect 3D VR organs before beginning surgery. EchoPixel is a startup that plans to use information garnered from medical imaging technology to provide this function, and offer a more comprehensive option to current flat images from scans doctors rely on.

Read more about EchoPixel »

7 Teaching this robot will help children to improve their handwriting

When children teach their peers, they gain self esteem and improve their own skills, and that’s exactly what Swiss company CoWriter Project’s robot plans to facilitate. The classroom assistant bot NAO, who is less advanced at handwriting than the most students, gives those struggling someone to teach. It can be programmed to reproduce common handwriting errors, which it learns from a database of children’s writing samples.

Read more about CoWriter Project »

8 Searchable college database only lists affordable, high-quality institutions

Though the option of college is increasingly being replaced with tech schools and online courses, many still prefer the traditional infrastructure. But for low-income students, being accepted into a good college is only half the battle — the UK recently topped OECD’s survey as having the highest university tuition fees, averaging at around USD 9000 annually per student, with the US following at USD 8000. ScholarMatch is a nonprofit which enables donors to support struggling students financially, and their new tool ScholarMatcher lets prospective students search only for affordable, high-quality institutions. We also saw AdmitSee, a peer-to-peer service that offers college applicants an alternative to expensive admission consultants — potential students can link up with accepted students from colleges on their priority lists.

Read more about ScholarMatcher »

9 Home cell growing kit lets everyone try biotech

Catering to the citizen scientist market, Amino Labs presents an at-home bioengineering kit. The package includes equipment for growing and feeding cells, as well as tools to implant DNA into them. The startup hopes to make biotechnology accessible with their easy-to-use format.

Read more about Amino Labs »

10 Nameless paint set teaches users about color theory

It wouldn’t be an education round-up without an idea from the art world. The Japan-based Nameless Paint Set brings an ingenious new design to the traditional paint tube — instead of being represented by their actual color, the paints are identified by its pigment parts so that users can learn about color theory while choosing which shades to use in their latest masterpiece.

Read more about Nameless Paint Set »

2 Anyone can learn coding for free by completing projects for nonprofits

As software engineering becomes a coveted career and coding a valuable skill, innovations are offering ways to help individuals step their game up and develop HTML/CSS, Javascript, and other programming skills. Free Code Camp enables anyone to learn to code for free, and it does so by getting users to work on projects for nonprofits. Livecoding.tv is another platform that aims to open up coding, which works by hosting live stream videos of experienced programmers writing script. Users are encouraged to ask questions, and are able to view the trial and error problem solving in real-time. Across the globe, promising students in Africa are being paid to become remote developers — Andela is a global talent accelerator which provides paid training to young people before linking them with coding jobs.

Read more about Free Code Camp »

3 Schoolkids have a new science classroom — in space

Perhaps one of the most innovative (and spectacular) industries is space exploration, and now schoolkids can can conduct actual space experiments with the help of startup Ardusat. Partnering with satellite company Spire, they provide a variety of toolkits, which classrooms can use to conduct experiments around data collection — each Space Kit contains various sensors found on real satellites.

Read more about Ardusat »

4 Anyone can help with crowdsourcing future antibiotics

The #CitizenScience movement gains momentum by the year, with crowdsourced data becoming a standard for research-led organizations. Post/Biotics enables anyone, including children, to join the search for antibiotics. Participants can sample anything in natural areas, from the soil in their backyard to mushrooms in their local park — if their sample has antibacterial properties, the toolkit will change color. Similarly harnessing the power of citizen scientists, iSPEX-EU saw thousands of air pollution measurements taken by users’ smartphones in a six week research period.

Read more about Post/Biotics »

5 Camera kit teaches kids about tech in nature

The Wildlife Cam Kit sees another great way of getting kids outdoors while developing skills in science and computing — their Raspberry Pi-powered camera is user-constructed, and takes stealth pictures of garden wildlife. Users build their own cameras, learning skills in coding and 3D design, before placing it in the garden, where the camera will capture close up images of the birds and the bees.

Read more about Wildlife Cam Kit »

6 Doctors will soon be able to study 3D-rendered organs in VR before operations

As virtual reality makes it way into a multitude of disciplines, its versatile potential is increasingly exemplified. Now, doctors can explore and inspect 3D VR organs before beginning surgery. EchoPixel is a startup that plans to use information garnered from medical imaging technology to provide this function, and offer a more comprehensive option to current flat images from scans doctors rely on.

Read more about EchoPixel »

7 Teaching this robot will help children to improve their handwriting

When children teach their peers, they gain self esteem and improve their own skills, and that’s exactly what Swiss company CoWriter Project’s robot plans to facilitate. The classroom assistant bot NAO, who is less advanced at handwriting than the most students, gives those struggling someone to teach. It can be programmed to reproduce common handwriting errors, which it learns from a database of children’s writing samples.

Read more about CoWriter Project »

8 Searchable college database only lists affordable, high-quality institutions

Though the option of college is increasingly being replaced with tech schools and online courses, many still prefer the traditional infrastructure. But for low-income students, being accepted into a good college is only half the battle — the UK recently topped OECD’s survey as having the highest university tuition fees, averaging at around USD 9000 annually per student, with the US following at USD 8000. ScholarMatch is a nonprofit which enables donors to support struggling students financially, and their new tool ScholarMatcher lets prospective students search only for affordable, high-quality institutions. We also saw AdmitSee, a peer-to-peer service that offers college applicants an alternative to expensive admission consultants — potential students can link up with accepted students from colleges on their priority lists.

Read more about ScholarMatcher »

9 Home cell growing kit lets everyone try biotech

Catering to the citizen scientist market, Amino Labs presents an at-home bioengineering kit. The package includes equipment for growing and feeding cells, as well as tools to implant DNA into them. The startup hopes to make biotechnology accessible with their easy-to-use format.

Read more about Amino Labs »

10 Nameless paint set teaches users about color theory

It wouldn’t be an education round-up without an idea from the art world. The Japan-based Nameless Paint Set brings an ingenious new design to the traditional paint tube — instead of being represented by their actual color, the paints are identified by its pigment parts so that users can learn about color theory while choosing which shades to use in their latest masterpiece.

Read more about Nameless Paint Set »

1 Messaging add-on uses kids’ own text mistakes to improve their literacy

With spellcheck and autocorrect now ubiquitous in communication tools, the need for understanding correct spelling and grammar is becoming antiquated. This will especially be the case in the eyes (or thumbs) of young people, who will be all too familiar with the feeling of blindly typing letters in the hopes that their smartphones will detect they’re trying to say ‘bourgeoisie’. Messaging app iCorrect wants to use these functionalities to improve literacy, instead of offer an easy way out.

Acting as an add-on for iMessage, iCorrect highlights mistakes in SMSs and makes the user fix them before the message can be sent. It offers hints and tips to help users correct their mistakes, turning every text message into a lesson. ReThink, a similar plugin, assesses language in an attempt to prevent cyber bullying — it flags up offensive messages and asks the writer to reconsider before sending. But unlike iCorrect, it does not inhibit the user to send it, instead offering soft nudges for those prone to react and retaliate to internet trolling.

Read more about iCorrect »

2 Anyone can learn coding for free by completing projects for nonprofits

As software engineering becomes a coveted career and coding a valuable skill, innovations are offering ways to help individuals step their game up and develop HTML/CSS, Javascript, and other programming skills. Free Code Camp enables anyone to learn to code for free, and it does so by getting users to work on projects for nonprofits. Livecoding.tv is another platform that aims to open up coding, which works by hosting live stream videos of experienced programmers writing script. Users are encouraged to ask questions, and are able to view the trial and error problem solving in real-time. Across the globe, promising students in Africa are being paid to become remote developers — Andela is a global talent accelerator which provides paid training to young people before linking them with coding jobs.

Read more about Free Code Camp »

3 Schoolkids have a new science classroom — in space

Perhaps one of the most innovative (and spectacular) industries is space exploration, and now schoolkids can can conduct actual space experiments with the help of startup Ardusat. Partnering with satellite company Spire, they provide a variety of toolkits, which classrooms can use to conduct experiments around data collection — each Space Kit contains various sensors found on real satellites.

Read more about Ardusat »

4 Anyone can help with crowdsourcing future antibiotics

The #CitizenScience movement gains momentum by the year, with crowdsourced data becoming a standard for research-led organizations. Post/Biotics enables anyone, including children, to join the search for antibiotics. Participants can sample anything in natural areas, from the soil in their backyard to mushrooms in their local park — if their sample has antibacterial properties, the toolkit will change color. Similarly harnessing the power of citizen scientists, iSPEX-EU saw thousands of air pollution measurements taken by users’ smartphones in a six week research period.

Read more about Post/Biotics »

5 Camera kit teaches kids about tech in nature

The Wildlife Cam Kit sees another great way of getting kids outdoors while developing skills in science and computing — their Raspberry Pi-powered camera is user-constructed, and takes stealth pictures of garden wildlife. Users build their own cameras, learning skills in coding and 3D design, before placing it in the garden, where the camera will capture close up images of the birds and the bees.

Read more about Wildlife Cam Kit »

6 Doctors will soon be able to study 3D-rendered organs in VR before operations

As virtual reality makes it way into a multitude of disciplines, its versatile potential is increasingly exemplified. Now, doctors can explore and inspect 3D VR organs before beginning surgery. EchoPixel is a startup that plans to use information garnered from medical imaging technology to provide this function, and offer a more comprehensive option to current flat images from scans doctors rely on.

Read more about EchoPixel »

7 Teaching this robot will help children to improve their handwriting

When children teach their peers, they gain self esteem and improve their own skills, and that’s exactly what Swiss company CoWriter Project’s robot plans to facilitate. The classroom assistant bot NAO, who is less advanced at handwriting than the most students, gives those struggling someone to teach. It can be programmed to reproduce common handwriting errors, which it learns from a database of children’s writing samples.

Read more about CoWriter Project »

8 Searchable college database only lists affordable, high-quality institutions

Though the option of college is increasingly being replaced with tech schools and online courses, many still prefer the traditional infrastructure. But for low-income students, being accepted into a good college is only half the battle — the UK recently topped OECD’s survey as having the highest university tuition fees, averaging at around USD 9000 annually per student, with the US following at USD 8000. ScholarMatch is a nonprofit which enables donors to support struggling students financially, and their new tool ScholarMatcher lets prospective students search only for affordable, high-quality institutions. We also saw AdmitSee, a peer-to-peer service that offers college applicants an alternative to expensive admission consultants — potential students can link up with accepted students from colleges on their priority lists.

Read more about ScholarMatcher »

9 Home cell growing kit lets everyone try biotech

Catering to the citizen scientist market, Amino Labs presents an at-home bioengineering kit. The package includes equipment for growing and feeding cells, as well as tools to implant DNA into them. The startup hopes to make biotechnology accessible with their easy-to-use format.

Read more about Amino Labs »

10 Nameless paint set teaches users about color theory

It wouldn’t be an education round-up without an idea from the art world. The Japan-based Nameless Paint Set brings an ingenious new design to the traditional paint tube — instead of being represented by their actual color, the paints are identified by its pigment parts so that users can learn about color theory while choosing which shades to use in their latest masterpiece.

Read more about Nameless Paint Set »